Blair's Blog

As of today at noon, we are the owners of a new place in southwest Calgary! Yep, after 15 years in Chestermere, we are moving into the city. There are a host of reasons for the move, but the bottom line really comes down to three things: time, community and education.

Time: Between Brenda and I, on a good week we are spending at least 30 hours behind the wheel getting to school, to work, shopping, kids activities, visiting friends and so on. A bad week can be closer to 50 hours. The cost is substantial financially (with gas at $1.20/L) as well as with respect to how tired we are at the end of the day.

Community: Chestermere never really matured into the vibrant town that we hoped for when we moved here. Despite growing from about 2000 people in 1998 when we moved in to somewhere around 17000 today, there is still only a limited commercial sector and essentially no business that isn’t retail. Basically every activity whether social, shopping, school, dentist, doctor, work or anything else involves a drive into Calgary. Chestermere is a bedroom suburb of Calgary and the constant line of SUVs and minivans between Calgary and Chestermere makes us think that we are not the only family in this situation.

Education: The kids have always attended school in Calgary, and as they get older we are finding that they are needing something different – an environment that will challenge them to not just learn the 3 R’s but to grow in independent thought and maturity. The educational choices are better in Calgary and living in the southwest will mean that the kids will be able to walk to school, rather than depending on us to drive them.

Beyond this, it will be nice to be a lot closer to family and it is giving us the perfect excuse to purge a bunch of junk treasured possessions that it would be nice to not have to take care of any longer.

It is tough to move after so long in a house that we have really made our own and enjoy, especially for the kids who haven’t known any other home. Really, if we could just move the house into the city, that would be good – but that’s not how it works!

Pictures to follow – it’s tough to handle the camera while hauling boxes of junk treasured possessions into the new place!

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This is the first car that I ever owned. It’s a 1963 Valiant – the one with the 225 ci slant-six engine and push-button automatic transmission.

I was sorting through some of our older digital camera files and scans and stumbled across this picture, taken in front of my folks place in November 1984. The car had been in the family since my grandfather (on Dad’s side) bought it new. Continue Reading »

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It’s definitely easier to deal with packing the suitcases on the last day of vacation when it’s raining out! The weather here in Cancun / Playa del Carmen has been very nice up until Friday afternoon when a late day storm blew us off the beach, maybe 40 minutes before we would have left to get ready for dinner.
Yesterday, though, was overcast and lots of rain in the morning so we grabbed a window table in the restaurant beside the pool and just hung out together. By early afternoon, the rain stopped but it stayed overcast and blustery. But, warm. Warm enough to walk down the beach in our swim suits, wading in the surf. I’d say we walked about 5km. I did a little body surfing and we had a dip in the pool when we got back to our resort. Turned out to be a great day.
And now that we are all packed with 3 hours til check out time, the sun has reappeared and we are off to the beach.

Tags: Travel

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Mornings are iguana time, here. I think the afternoons are too hot, but around breakfast there seems to be quite a few about.  Most of them are either looking for bugs (presumably) in the lawns or lying in the sunshine on the rock features.   Much of the rock around here is limestone – lots of eroded holes and pockets for lizard hiding spots.
Other lizards like smaller anoles or geckos come out later in the day. Lots of noisy & bright tropical birds around, too.   The resort is surrounded by mangrove swamps, so we hear more birds than we’ve seen.
Most interesting animal though has been some kind of anteater with a long furry tail. Haven’t managed to get a picture though.

Tags: Travel

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